When Hiccup Died 2- The Manual On Being Dead
by Diamond Rogue
Summary: Life is such an objective term.


Author's Note: Happy Halloween again everybody! For those of you that follow All Dogs Go To Valhalla or reviewed last time with an actual account, you knew this was coming. If you don't, first off _ow my heart_, secondly I hope this is a pleasant surprise! Luke and Nobody, I hope you get to read this!

If you don't know what's going on, this is a continuation of the fic I uploaded _last_ Halloween, _When Hiccup Died_. You should go read that one first, unless you want to be confused! I don't get that, but you do you. Most everything will be explained there, not here.

The same warnings as last time apply here too. Death and reanimation and minor PTSD. If you're sensitive to that kinda stuff you have had, like, three whole paragraphs to pick up and leave. You got some serious dedication to read through all my rigamoroll. Enough of that, then, time for the story! Enjoy.

-Carly

Living, if you could even call it that now, had never been better for Hiccup. He had the respect of his father, the respect of his peers, a best friend, he stopped a war for Thor's sake! Everything was almost perfect.

Being dead was really only a minor setback, if you thought about it. Sure he had to constantly wrap and wash his limbs to keep them from falling apart, some vikings complained about how his decay stunk, and not to mention his complexion had never been greener, but oh well. Wins and losses. Speaking of wins...

"Best trick competition!" The zombie coughed out from a cloth banage holding his face together. "Who's first?" He and the other teens that had once been training to fight dragons had gathered on a sea stack to test who had done the best job training said dragons, and in some cases, show off.

"Me!" Crowed his still-alive cousin Snotlout.

In actuality it was Fishlegs' turn to go first, but the larger human was completely preoccupied writing something down with gusto. While everyone else was busy watching Snotlout fail spectacularly, Hiccup was urging Toothless to get him in closer so he could peek over his shoulder. He still couldn't see. He glanced sideways at Astrid and the twins. Still watching Snotlout, who had been holding out for a surprisingly long time. Being as discreet as possible, he gently reached up to his neck...

"What are you writing?" He asked Fishlegs, holding his head out in his hands to get a better look.

In hindsight, maybe that was a bad idea. His friend startled and screamed, which spooked his dragon, which in turn surprised the twins' dragon, which knocked its heads together looking for the source of danger, sending Ruffnut and Tuffnut on a one-way trip to the ground. Hiccup winced and brought his head back in.

"Ouch." Tuffnut groaned.

"Let's do that again!" His sister groaned in response.

"Sorry." Hiccup said as everyone recovered, snapping his head back in place. Astrid gagged.

"Why do you do that?" She asked him, thoroughly grossed out.

"More importantly, _how_ do you do that?" Fishlegs continued, eyes shining as he poised to write down whatever Hiccup said.

"I don't know. It's useful?" He answered uncertainly. "I just take a limb and..."

"_Don't do it again!_" Astrid scolded him while turned away. Hiccup restrained a chuckle. Fishlegs kept writing.

"So now that I have your attention, what has you writing so much?" Hiccup asked Fishlegs once again.

"Well, we practically didn't know anything about the undead before, the only documents we had were just fairy tales and written ghost stories, but now that you're uh..." He faltered from his ramblings at the topic.

"Dead?" Hiccup urged.

"Right. Now that you're dead, we have the opportunity to learn so much! We thought that zombies were just brain-eating shambling monsters, but you still act human!" He blinked before realising how that sounded. "No offense." He tacked on at the end.

"None taken." Hiccup sighed, bringing his attention back to his cousin, who had landed back onto the sea stack and had fallen next to the twins. They had elected to remain on the ground.

"I'm alive!" Snotlout assured himself.

"Good for you." Astrid drawled sarcastically.

"Oh, is it my turn?" Fishlegs looked up from his notebook.

Urging Meatlug into the air, the two went in a small circle before returning. As the twins scrambled back onto their dragons heads, Hiccup zoned out, thinking of what Fishlegs told him. He didn't remember much about his death. Just the heat of the explosion then nothing, then waking up again with Toothless lying on his body near-sobbing. He subconciously held tighter to the night fury, dragon shuffling his wings to gently tell his rider _i'm here_. He didn't know why he came back. He, Astrid, and Fishlegs had quickly debunked the theory that once he reconciled with his dad he'd get that eternal slumber and it was eating at him.

Did he even _want_ to die fully? There were things he missed about being human. Eating was one of them. He'd deduced that just sitting there, not doing anything at dinner, was one of the most awkward sensations of his unlife. Constantly washing himself just to stave off the stench of decomposing was a pain as well.

There were things that were absolutely better for him now, though. Toothless was a dragon of the night after all, and now that he didn't need to sleep he and his best friend could go on night flights with no consequence. He'd also learned that scratching Toothless' scales had never been easier with detachable arms. He was sure Toothless appreciated that too.

He was brought back to the situation at hand when said night fury smacked him with an auricle.

"Hiccup? Hiccup!" Astrid shouted at him from Stormfly's back.

"Huh?"

"It's your turn!" She scoffed. "Geez, weren't you even watching?"

Hiccup scratched at a bandage sheepishly.

"Sorry. You, ready, Toothless?" His dragon responded by leaping forward, and together they flew. With every tuck and dive, they were completely in sync. The outside world didn't matter, everyone else watching didn't matter, if he was alive or not didn't matter. It was just him and Toothless together in an unpracticed dance in the sky.

So maybe he didn't technically survive the war. They won. He and Toothless were together. And that's all that mattered.


End file.
